My favourite watch has a huge two and a half centimetre face which I can *just* read without my glasses, making it perfect for weekends. It badly needs a new watchband, though, so I hunted about on ebay until I found one that I liked. I watched it for a couple of days, then emailed the seller to ask a question. Once she replied I placed a bid, and within the space of 12 hours I was outbid. I increased my bid by a small amount but was immediately outbid again. At that point I walked away from it.

The auction ended today, with that other bidder being successful. Within two hours of the auction ending I had a "second chance offer" to buy due to either the original bidder failing to come good with the cash (within that time frame, for such a small amount, highly unlikely)or the seller having more than one (she has no other items listed for sale). When I had a look at the highest bidder, the watchband was the first thing he/she has ever bid on.

It just feels as though the seller set up a new profile just to bid on this and drive up the price, then came unstuck when I didn't continue to bid. I don't know if I want to buy this now, as a result. And it's not the first time this has happened. I was outbid on a wallet once; when I received a second chance offer for the first one I ignored it as I'd already bought one elsewhere. The original seller actually sent me an angry message when I failed to act on the second-chance email! Bit rude.Has anyone else experienced this?

i think this appears quite regularly on ebay. i have found some things that i have bid on for lewis collins to be , well lets just say , it seems like some one making a second account just to push the price up because once i stopped bidding , i then seem to be given a second chance ..i find that quite odd to be honest x

See my reply below for the full story, but from what I have learned today, I would say don't bid until the very very end of the auction. Because yes, the earlier you big, the earlier they have a chance to drive the price up.

It's annoying, too, as well as seeming odd. Mead has given a good explanation of what's going on. I use the "buy it now" button usually, if it's available, because at least then you don't end up in a bidding war with someone.